You Don't Say

John McIntyre, whom James Wolcott called "the Dave Brubeck of the art and craft of copy editing," writes on language, editing, journalism, and random topics. Identifying his errors relieves him of the burden of omniscience. Write to jemcintyre@gmail.com, befriend at Facebook, or follow at Twitter: @johnemcintyre. His original "You Don't Say" blog at The Baltimore Sun ran from 2005 to 2021, and posts on it can sometimes be found at baltimoresun.com through Google searches.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

How dumb do they think we are?

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Once a television news operation gets a technology, it’s obliged to use it, regardless whether it makes any sense. When I lived in Cincinn...
11 comments:
Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Another damn word of the year

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Every maven and his sisters and his cousins, whom he reckons by the dozens, is pushing a word-of-the-year article or word-of-the-decade arti...
8 comments:

Writing made bad on purpose

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It must puzzle lay people — it has certainly puzzled me for years — that professional journalists write so clumsily. I’m going to lead you t...
10 comments:
Monday, December 21, 2009

Watch your adverbs

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In English, word order counts for a great deal, as this sentence from Baltimoresun.com illustrates: Kevin P. Callahan was charged with ne...
3 comments:
Sunday, December 20, 2009

Just want it to be over

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One of my readers suggests that I address the naming of the decade that is passing away, since no one seems to have agreed on a term. Fortun...
16 comments:
Saturday, December 19, 2009

That man in the White House

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Hell of a story: Popular Democrat comes into office succeeding a highly unpopular Republican administration, hits the ground running to deal...
Friday, December 18, 2009

In case you missed it ...

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A recent comment on the post “Christmas is coming. Save yourselves” said: I can't wait until all copy editors are out of work. You pe...
12 comments:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What do you want to hear about?

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I told you yesterday that I am scheduled to conduct two audioconferences on editing for McMurry, one in January, “Things Your English Teache...
12 comments:
Monday, December 14, 2009

A BRIEF COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

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*****ADVERTISEMENT***** I have been engaged by McMurry, which also publishes the Copyediting newsletter, to conduct two audio conferences...
1 comment:
Saturday, December 12, 2009

Meep me, daddy, eight to the bar

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The principal of a high school in Massachusetts recently banned the word meep in his school, threatening any student who used it, spoken or...
14 comments:
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